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Nolen receives rough ride in UK

Queen Elizabeth II had kind words for Luke Nolen but not all her subjects did.

Getty: Alan Crowhurst

Luke Nolen was savaged in the British media on Sunday for his self-confessed 'brain fade' on Black Caviar.

Nolen, the jockey in all but three of the champion mare's 22 victories, dropped his hands in the closing stages, only to have to hurry the horse desperately before the line to stave off the challenge of Moonlight Cloud by a nose in the Diamond Stakes.

The bible of British horse racing, the Racing Post, labelled Nolen "The Blunder from Down Under", adding that the horse survived the "scare of the century".

The UK's most well-known racing personality, John McCririck called the race "heart-stopping" laying all the blame on Nolen.

"Jockey error in the biggest race of the season is unforgivable - she won despite the jockey," McCririck said. "He will never get a ride here or in Europe after that."

The UK's biggest selling tabloids The Sun and The Mirror went for "Caviar saves lucky Luke" and "Luk-y Devil" respectively, with the latter saying "he would have been crucified Down Under if he had lost".

Marcus Armytage of the Sunday Telegraph spoke of the strain the narrow victory put the hordes of Australians in attendance through.

"You could feel the collective shock of the 5,000 Australians among the crowd and one presumes the coronary department at Ascot's Heatherwood Hospital was doing brisk antipodean business at teatime," he said.

"Skin of teeth was not quite how it was meant to be for the mare backed into 1-6 in what bookmakers described as a worldwide gamble."

While derision about Black Caviar's narrow victory may have been expected, especially in comparison to fantasy rival Frankel's 11-length victory on Monday, the Racing Post summarised the feeling of respect for the horse and her connections for risking the unbeaten record so far away from home.

"While she did not dominate Royal Ascot as Frankel did, or blitz the British as her Australian fans hoped she would, she still travelled across the globe to face the best a foreign land could throw at her and prevailed. She returns home a champion."